I must admit the only part of that I read was the summary paragraph, and that was for good reaon (to my mind). Really; blaming catatrophic event frequency increases on the interstellar medium??

Life on Earth has been going for around 3.5 billion years(?). Seems very convenient that these Earth-altering changes from the Beyond should start appearing just as Humans become able to detect them...

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Why so strange? Cave men did not have the technology or model development to percieve such possibilities. Certain realizations hinge on the technology timeline, where instrumentation and convergence of enough human experience mounts up to bring forth such awareness.

Strange that we should be moving our bodies at 60mph only now, since the wheel has been around for thousands and thousands of years.

Realisation (or observation) and emergence of a thing are seldom tightly coupled. It's like going back in time and just happening to be looking at the first cell to engulf another and form the mitochondrial symbiosis we all exist upon, JUST as it happens.

Basically: what are the odds?

I suppose these interstellar disruptions brought about the end of the dinosaurs...

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I simply am suggesting that these forces might have been in operation all along, but our technological and intellectual power could not discern them.

Maybe these other alleged cosmic forces (dare I say "astro-ecological"?) were part of the orchestration of past major climate shifts. Current climate shifts are not the only ones that have ever happened, we know.

Astro-ecological - excellent! Try it again on the minds of the time in 500 years or so lol

I do feel however that this particular article is more of an excuse than anything else - something the US Government would use to argue Climate change (much like they used Michael Crichton's new book, oh how we laughed...).